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A Fox release. Written by Nikki Reed and Catherine Hardwicke; directed by Hardwicke; starring Evan Rachel Wood and Reed. Released to DVD on January 27, 2004. On paper, director Catherine Hardwicke’s film Thirteen is very similar in nature to Larry Clark’s 1995 film, Kids. Both films focus on two young teen leads who are participating in some decidedly deviant activities. However, despite these common traits, Thirteen comes across as a strikingly original and poignant film about one teenager’s toughest years. The reason for this is simple: Thirteen’s writers, Hardwicke and Nikki Reed give their leads a complex sense of motivations and goals. Evan Rachel Wood stars in Thirteen as Tracy Freeland, an especially uncomfortable thirteen-year old. Living with her mother and her older brother, Tracy is, like all kids at that age, caught in that ugly space between being a child and being an adult. Tracy still sleeps with a multitude of stuffed animals on her bed, yet looks up to popular girls like Evie Zamora (Reed) who makes a daily habit wearing thongs and coiffing her highlighted hair. Tracy wants nothing more than to be Evie’s best friend. Then she gets her wish, much to the chagrin of everyone of consequence in her life. I liked Thirteen for a number of different reasons, but most of these reasons were by products of its honesty. Hardwicke and Reed’s script isn’t interested in repeating life lessons ad nauseum that one is supposed to learn from watching (take note Tom Shadyac) or creating a happy, inflated story for people to see and in turn feel good about themselves. Thirteen is a real movie, a movie that seems interested in simply relating one girl’s story to an audience; it’s up to the viewers to take from this what they will. And in this respect, Thirteen distances itself from not only the other teen dramas being released, but a large portion of other films as well.
chris neumer yes, it's true: Experts think that people are superstitious about the number thirteen because there were (an unlucky) thirteen people at the Last Supper; Jesus and his twelve apostles. |
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